Update on the 40 gallon breeder

[xnguven]

Hey guys been a while since I posted something but quick update on the 40 gallon breeder.

Been dealing with Cyanobacteria for a couple weeks and added another powerhead to cover more dead spots in the tank to prevent it from building up on the sand bed. In addition decreased my lighting period from 10hrs to 8 and added in some phosguard to maintain phosphates in the tank.

Livestock as of now:
2 black ice snowflake clownfish
1 firefish goby
1 pink spotted watchman goby
5 Hawaiian zebra hermit crabs
3 margarita coralline snails
3 nassarius snails
3 turbo snails
1 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp (added him in today)
1 green finger leather coral
1 galexea coral
1 green star polyp
1 frogspawn coral
1 Duncan coral
1 Micronesia hammer coral
1 pearl bubble coral
1 acan coral
A rock covered with Green stripped mushroom corals

 

[saltyhog]

Looking good!

That rock on the sand on the right would be a great place to put that green star polyp. I love the stuff but if you don't isolate it, it can over take the tank in a hurry.

Tank at my LFS that had that happen.

Here's what I did with mine.

 

[xnguven]

The rock on the right have all my mushroom corals in it. But that gave me a good idea of getting another rock and making it an island for the green star polyp. I was also thinking about glueing it to the back of my tank and just let it grow and have a whole wall full of green star polyp lol.

 

[ZaneTer]

The idea that low flow causes cyano is a terrible misconception that needs to be eradicated.
In the picture below cyano is growing on glass directly in front of a 24000lph Powerhead. It is growing in the highest flow rate part of the tank

 

[Dempsey941]

Tanks looking pretty sweet!

 

[JMM744]

I totally agree about the flow misconception. My tanks have tons of flow and it’s still there, often in the flow. It won’t stay in the heaviest but just off the side in more then moderate flow. My mp40’s are at 80% on my 180 Fowler on opposing side , front bottom and the cyno collects all along the glass bottom despite the heavy flow.

 

[xnguven]

The idea that low flow causes cyano is a terrible misconception that needs to be eradicated.
In the picture below cyano is growing on glass directly in front of a 24000lph Powerhead. It is growing in the highest flow rate part of the tank

That’s crazy! My tank is pretty low flow as of right now and the cyano is not coming back as much. I got a 850 gph and 600 gph powerheads with a Marineland emperor pushing just about 400 gph. I’m keeping the 850 gph off for now because it was too much.

 

[xnguven]

Tanks looking pretty sweet!

Thank you first saltwater tank ever then I converted my old 20g freshwater tank into a saltwater tank lol!

 

[xnguven]

I totally agree about the flow misconception. My tanks have tons of flow and it’s still there, often in the flow. It won’t stay in the heaviest but just off the side in more then moderate flow. My mp40’s are at 80% on my 180 Fowler on opposing side , front bottom and the cyno collects all along the glass bottom despite the heavy flow.

I was reading up on how to prevent Cyanobacteria and all the websites said to add more flow to prevent deadspots. I bought another powerhead and now I don’t even use it as much because the same thing happened to me and cyano was still forming even with the high flow and now I just leave one off lol. Decreasing the lighting period helped me so far and added phosguard to the tank but too early to tell if it’s helping.

 

[xnguven]

This was how bad the cyano was before I did the water change lol

 

[ZaneTer]

Wow, that’s quite a thick mat. I would absolutely clean that sand bed out very thoroughly. Your first tank is looking good.

 

[xnguven]

Hey guys it’s been like 3 months since I took these pictures so just an update on the tank.

I changed the rockscape because there were dead zones in the tank where there were little to no flow and a bunch of detritus would pile up there. I think this rockscape makes more sense for the fish in there because it’s not uniform and more spread out.

I also lost the frogspawn coral I had which killed me inside, was one of my favorite coral but got another euphylia, the torch coral. In addition, I updated my lights to an AI Prime 16HD reef using BRS AB+ settings and made a huge difference in the coloration of the corals.

Also the cyano is pretty much gone from the tank with just minor dusting but it has not come back as bad as it was before. Side note, I actually didnt even use my powerheads for most of the time so increasing flow to get rid of cyano did not work for me.

The live stock currently:
2 Black ice snowflake clownfish
1 firefish goby
1 pink spotted watchman goby
1 chalk basslet
1 pistole shrimp
and nassarius, trochus snails for clean up crew.

Corals:
Metal green leptoseris
Green star polyp
Candycane coral
Acan
Hammer
Bubble
Torch
Duncan
Neon green finger leather coral
Galexea
Zoanthid
Blue green leptastrea
Green stripped mushrooms

 

[xnguven]

Hey guys it’s been like 3 months since I took these pictures so just an update on the tank.

I changed the rockscape because there were dead zones in the tank where there were little to no flow and a bunch of detritus would pile up there. I think this rockscape makes more sense for the fish in there because it’s not uniform and more spread out.

I also lost the frogspawn coral I had which killed me inside, was one of my favorite coral but got another euphylia, the torch coral. In addition, I updated my lights to an AI Prime 16HD reef using BRS AB+ settings and made a huge difference in the coloration of the corals.

Also the cyano is pretty much gone from the tank with just minor dusting but it has not come back as bad as it was before. Side note, I actually didnt even use my powerheads for most of the time so increasing flow to get rid of cyano did not work for me.

The live stock currently:
2 Black ice snowflake clownfish
1 firefish goby
1 pink spotted watchman goby
1 chalk basslet
1 pistole shrimp
and nassarius, trochus snails for clean up crew.

Corals:
Metal green leptoseris
Green star polyp
Candycane coral
Acan
Hammer
Bubble
Torch
Duncan
Neon green finger leather coral
Galexea
Zoanthid
Blue green leptastrea
Green stripped mushrooms